Tag: Shalane flanagan

It’s a very Salty special edition of the Roundup and Roundtable, BOSTON MARATHON style! Where do we begin???

Des. We believed. It was hard to have a “favorite” going into this race but man, we’ve got a lot of Salty love for her. This time last year, we published “That Desiree Linden, She’s Second to None.” And now — finally — she’s first. Winning Boston is her first marathon win. Ever. Read more >>

It’s almost Marathon Monday! Spectating the Boston Marathon was my first exposure to the marathon as a “thing people did.” As a college freshman, I stood in Kenmore Square, cheered and fried in the sun on the first warm spring day in 2004, back when the marathon still started at noon.

I didn’t know how far a marathon was; I didn’t much care. I didn’t know any of the runners at the front or back of the pack, I didn’t know the burning desire that consumes people to chase a BQ — often for years.

I certainly didn’t know that four years later, I’d stand on that line in Hopkinton.

One of my all-time favorite races was this weekend — Shamrock Virginia Beach. Kara Goucher was there using it as a training run and generally being super-awesome — check her Instagram for cute posts of Colt doing the kids’ run!

Nicole DiMercurio, left, and Joanna Thompson, after taking the top two spots at the Shamrock Virginia Beach half. Photo via ZAP.

I said not to count her out. You guys saw that, right? But still, when Shalane Flanagan flew down the final stretch of the New York City Marathon on Sunday, fist-bumping and F-bomb dropping, I could barely believe it, too.

Despite her storied marathon — and track — career, Shalane hadn’t captured a victory at a World Marathon Major. Now, she has, breaking a four-decade long drought of an American woman winning NYCM.

She was the engine on a freaking freight train of American women in the top 10 — Allie Kieffer (don’t worry, coming back to her), Kellyn Taylor, Stephanie Bruce, plus Diane Nukuri who just recently attained U.S. citizenship.

Sorry, did you catch that? FIVE AMERICAN WOMEN in the top 10 of the New York City Marathon.

FIVE.

It’s a hell of a way to wrap up an amazing freaking year for women’s distance running in the U.S.

Let me recap.

August: Amy Cragg earns a bronze medal in the World Championships marathon, following up on her 2016 Trials win and 9th place finish in the Rio Olympics. Meanwhile, on the track, Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs go 1-2 in the steeplechase for one of the most epic finishes EVER on the oval; Jenny Simpson charged down the stretch for silver in the 1500 meters.

October: Jordan Hasay runs the fastest time by an American woman at the Chicago Marathon, in 2:20:57, placing third. Her performance moves her to number 2 all time, just behind Deena Kastor’s 2:19:36 at the 2006 London Marathon. Gulp.

It’s a damn good year for American women distance runners. U.S.A. women have never — never — had double-digit sub-2:30 performances in one year before.

Shalane made it 12. Allie Kieffer made it 13.

Still with me? That’s 13 times an American woman has run under the 2:30 marker in a marathon in 2017.

Historic. And that’s saying a lot because 2016 was not too shabby either. (All three American women in the top 10 at Rio, plus bronze medals for Emma and Jenny, for example.)

Shalane said before the race she wanted “one more big performance” before she retires from professional racing.

She got it.

Ironically, her victory came in the same week we quoted her talking about her mom — running pioneer Cheryl Bridges (now Treworgy) — in our #MeToo piece. Bridges once held the world record in the marathon, yet would have crap thrown at her by men driving by while she was out training.

Now, let’s talk about Allie Kieffer. I’m not gonna sit here and act like I knew who she was going into this race, because I didn’t. In fact, I couldn’t find much about her. The race media guide listed her with a marathon personal best of 2:55:30, although she ran 2:44:44 to set a new indoor marathon world record last year as well. This year, she ran a 1:14:13 half-marathon, which is good but certainly not astounding.

On Sunday, Allie took 26 minutes off her marathon time in her second outdoor race at the distance, finishing in 2:29:39.

Allie didn’t have the smoothest road to the NYC starting line. She started running as a youth because her sister, Meghan, ran. But a few years later, her sister was killed in an 8-car collision during her junior year of college in 2007.

Allie went on to be a talented collegiate runner for Wake Forest. After college, she used money her sister bequeathed her to run professionally, qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Trials in the 10k but not racing it. Soon after, she found herself injured and moved back to her home state of New York from Boulder, Co.

She has no coach and had no major sponsorship heading into NYC, although breaking 2:30 will probably change that quickly.

Photo by Giancarlo Colombo at PhotoRun, courtesy NYRR.

And not too far behind were superstar running mamas Kellyn Taylor and Stephanie Bruce from NAZ Elite, with Diane Nukuri between them. Nukuri recently became a U.S. citizen, having previously competed for Burundi but having lived in Canada and the United States for most of her life.

Wow. Just wow.

What a day. The group messaging system we use for Salty Running was blowing up all morning, as people watched live and caught up on DVR.

My full month of using recipes from Shalane Flanagan’s cookbook Run Fast. Eat Slow. has come to an end, and the book itself shows signs of heavy usage over the past five weeks. I tried 30 recipes this month and enjoyed the majority. A few really stood out, however, and have gone into my normal cooking rotation.

This final week, I’ll review four last recipes, share those that I make on the regular now, offer some money-saving tips for the more expensive ingredients, and answer the burning question: did eating like Shalane for five weeks affect my running at all?

My month of making recipes from Shalane Flanagan’s cookbook Run Fast. Eat Slow. is nearing the end. This week, I attempted to really diversify and tried everything from desserts to main dishes to salads and smoothies. In addition to the new recipes featured this week, I made several recipes from prior weeks as well, including the Sweet Potato Breakfast Cookies, Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos, the Lemon-Miso Salad Dressing, and a hybrid kale salad.

This week’s recipes were not all loved, even by me. But the shared experience of trying something new, and watching each family member’s facial expression, has been incredibly fun. Read on for seven more recipe reviews!

For the last two weeks, I’ve been preparing and planning my meals using Shalane Flanagan’s cookbook Run Fast. Eat Slow. In general, it has not been a difficult transition from how I normally cook, and my family has been enjoying the new recipes.

We’ve talked about meal-planning here on Salty Running before, and I have to say that one of the easiest ways to meal plan is to make recipes that either leave behind leftovers for easy lunches or that can be the base of a new meal with just a couple of additions the next day.

The great thing with all the recipes I made this week is that they produced perfect leftovers, which actually allowed me to cook less than normal. The breakfast cookies were breakfast for several days, dinner one night was lunch for the three following days, and one salad was big enough to be the salad we ate the next night too.

Oh, and per your suggestions, I’m adding the total Prep & Cook time to each recipe!

In case you missed it, I’m embarking on a month of preparing and eating the recipes from Shalane Flanagan’s book Run Fast. Eat Slow. This is week two of my experiment.

One recipe I prepared last week, the mashed yams with sage brown butter, tasted great but the texture was not a favorite with any of my family, leaving me with a big pan of leftovers and no one to eat them. Additionally, we loved the roasted chicken and ended up with a carcass begging to be used for something.

With many of the ingredients new to me and more expensive than what I normally buy, and using those two recipes as inspiration, this week I set out to avoid wastefulness and overspending as I planned out the next set of recipes.

My husband got me Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky’s cookbook, Run Fast. Eat Slow. for Christmas. It had been on my radar for several months. We’d talked about it behind the scenes here at Salty Running, and several recipes had come up in conversation on runs with some of my running buddies. “Beets?! Why are there beets in everything?!” moaned one friend as we ran along together discussing it.

My husband smiled sheepishly when I opened my present and said, “The recipes reminded me of how you already cook, so I thought you’d like some new ideas.” As I looked through the recipes, the more my excitement and interest grew and I saw he was spot-on. Many of the recipes did remind me of our meals. I decided that I’d do more than just try a few recipes; I committed to trying five recipes per week for one month.

So for the next four weeks, I’ll make at least five recipes from Run Fast. Eat Slow. and share with you how they go down: how expensive and time-consuming they are, my opinion, my husband and kids’ opinions, suggestions for making them better, and whether or not I feel better on my runs.

Who knows? Maybe after all this I’ll run an OTQ. Or get a Nike sponsorship. Or, maybe it’ll just be a fun project to focus on during the dark middle of winter.